I found this post recently on one of my dear friends blogs, and it is verbatim what I have been thinking lately, so I thought stealing borrowing, plagiarising, quoting her, would be the best way to say what I mean.This post has been brewing in me for a little while now. It is
NOT
directed to any one person or situation in particular. But a
accumulation of occurrences.
As wedding engineers (er, planners), we get a plethora of wedding vendors
that contact us requesting to be on our
referred vendor list.
Facebook messages, emails, cards, phone calls, and more. We have a process when
we recommend a vendor (and yes, we will occasionally recommend vendors that we
have not worked with before… as long as they have some stellar testimonials that
we check out).
We are also offered many things, one of which a little
“kick-back”. “Refer me and I’ll give you $50.” says wedding a
vendor.
Honestly that’s not our motivation when referring vendors. For the record, we
do not accept kick-backs of any kind. What we prefer is that
you (the wedding vendor) extend that $50 towards our client’s service package.
You look good, we look good.
Win/Win.However here’s the real needle in the haystack that I want to address in this
blog post.
What we really would love, (we = wedding planners) are for
wedding
vendors that we recommend to do the following:
- Bring your A game and a little more. Seriously. Treat the
clients that we bring to you with such great care that they want to be your
Bestie as well.
- Want to work with US. That’s right. We bring you into the
team-fold to spend all day with you on a Saturday (away from our family), we
want you to work with us. If you have ever experienced working with the {wedding planning} team, you KNOW that we
don’t ask you to do anything that we wouldn’t do ourselves. In fact, there is no
such language as, “That’s not our job” at an event. We pitch in and work hard
right along side of you.
- Watch each other’s backs. It takes a full vendor team to
execute a fabulous wedding. Everyone doing their part and a little more. We all
make mistakes (yes, us too). We’re human. Help us and we’ll help you.
- Be a little more flexible. You know that your job is going
to be a little easier with us on site. Timelines and production schedules are
complete. All vendors are contacted prior to the wedding. So don’t lump us with
all your other DIY clients. We are professional. Time is money and we know what
we are doing. A little flexibility goes a long way to repeat referrals.
- Have fun on the wedding day. We pull 17 hours sometimes.
Often, we’re the first ones there for setup … to the ceremony … the reception
and breaking out. We love what we do, but I won’t lie. Sometimes it can be a
long hard work day. Bring a smile and a great attitude. The day will go by
faster and easier.
- Communicate with us. Sometimes client’s don’t tell us
everything. A rogue Father of the Bride goes off and plans special events during
the reception as a surprise and we don’t know anything about it. Let us know
….
- Refer US. You read that correctly. Throw our name out there
to YOUR clients. Ask them, “WHO is your wedding planner?” and
tell them about us. Tell them why you like to work with us. You should know, we
SELL YOU before our clients call you to meet. This is a tight wedding vendor
circle and throwing back some love to us is just as important as us always
referring you. One sided relationships almost never work. Think about
it.
This blog post was from the heart and for educational purposes.
